1) In this week's hunt, our hunter is moving back to New York after having left to go to business school. She had previously lived in the West Village and wants to move back there, but rents have risen in the last three years—her studio apartment that used to cost $2,200/month would now be around $2,800. After visiting friends, a married couple, on the Upper West Side, she decides that the West Village is not necessarily the only option. She looks at a bunch of places, isn't really happy with any of them, and eventually settles on a $2,400/month studio a block away from her friends in the West 70s. She says that getting to see them so often will "add a lot of joy to [her] life." ("So, what are we doing for your anniversary?") [The Hunt/'Character Counts, Bathtub Essential']
2) The British government is cracking down on tax avoidance associated with high-end real estate deals, making it very expensive (even more than usual) to buy properties using offshore accounts. What does this have to do with us? Well, it could mean that New York City is now definitively the number one city in the world for rich foreigners to purchase crazy expensive apartments. USA! USA! One57—which could use some good news after losing out on that Qatari Prime Minister—is going to be overjoyed to read this article, which also features hilarious London Mayor Boris Johnson getting in a bunch of good digs at Bloomberg. "'Far be it from me to rub in our success in winning the Olympic Games for London,' Mr. Johnson said on that day in 2009, as Mr. Bloomberg looked on silently." [Big Deal/'In London, Taxes Rise. Will Buyers Flee to New York?']
3) Before Liz and David, the current owners of a townhouse on Waverly Avenue in Clinton Hill, bought the place in 2009, its last recorded sale was in 1903 for "$50 and three sheep." It was purchased by a printer named George Ferry in 1920 who, although he never recorded the deed for the property, lived there with his wife and daughter, Evelyn, for the rest of his life. Evelyn stayed in the house until the late '90s, when her health began to fall, but because she never married and had no family nearby, the house stood vacant for a decade, falling increasingly into disrepair. When it finally went up for auction, Liz and David scooped it up for $540,000 (some of which went to care for Evelyn, who died this year) and did an incredible job renovating it. Go look at the pictures. [Habitats/'The Lives of an Ex-Wreck']
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